


Boys Will Be Boys

by AndiMackmeetsHamilton



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Boys Being Boys, Boys Will Be Boys, Comedy, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Light-Hearted, M/M, Out of Character, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 03:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18437972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndiMackmeetsHamilton/pseuds/AndiMackmeetsHamilton
Summary: Walker, Jonah, TJ, Cyrus and Marty being stupid.  Or at least, Jonah, TJ and Marty being stupid and Cyrus and Walker being roped in to their dumb antics."Marty, I don't think we should be doing this...""And you choose to tell me this now, TJ, when we're halfway up a tree? "





	1. Operation Beehive

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first and not brilliant attempt at humour, just a collection of oneshots of the Andi Mack boys being their glorious selves while Buffy, Andi and Amber watch on in despair. Comments and feedback appreciated as this is my first funny fanfiction and I don't know how funny or not funny I could be (:

"Marty, I don't think we should be doing this..."

"And you choose to tell me this now, TJ, when we're halfway up a tree?"

"You know, guys, apparently if a bee stings you it can kill you." Jonah quipped from below them on the ground, sounding concerned.

"WHAT?!" both TJ and Marty shrieked simultaneously.

Walker exchanged looks with Cyrus, laughed and shook his head at his boyfriend's utter stupidity.

"No, Jonah, love. It kills them. Not us."

"Oh."

"Thank God." Marty laughed. 

"Good job, too, because I would have made myself fall, so I could die in Cyrus' arms." TJ added with a cheeky wink thrown in Cyrus' direction.

Cyrus cringed internally at TJ's cheesiness. He loved him for it, really.

"Do you even know anything about bees, Jonah?" Walker asked him. 

"My guess is no." Cyrus muttered, gripping Marty's phone intensely and trying to figure out where his camera was so they could upload this to YouTube later on.

"Hey, dude! Not cool!" Jonah replied, before turning his attention to Walker. "I've watched The Bee Movie a lot. That counts, right?"

Walker facepalmed at this, muttering, "Lord help us all."

"Out of interest, how many times have you watched it?" a concerned Walker queried.

Jonah shrugged casually, chewing his gum as was the custom for him to curb his anxiety.

"Maybe 300, 400 times? I've lost count now. I watch it at least once a week though." 

Walker just stared at Jonah for a second. 

"Remind me why you're dating him," Cyrus called over, before sticking his tongue out in concentration. 

"Hey!" Jonah exclaimed, acting mock offended and punching a grinning Cyrus in the shoulder.

Walker walked over, raising his eyebrows and looking in TJ's direction.

"Remind me why you're dating him."

TJ had just found his way to a high branch, using his athletic ability to swing his legs onto the branch before yelling at Walker to 'watch it', then proceeding to make silly faces at Cyrus to distract him.

"YOU LIKE JAZZ?!" Marty yelled sporadically. 

TJ almost slipped off the branch in fear.

Marty grinned. 

"You should have seen your face, dude. It's a reference to The Bee Movie. You should see the MLG videos with it in them, guys, they're lit!" 

TJ groaned. Marty had already forced him to watch his dumb videos, and now he was forcing the others to watch them, too?

"Focus, guys." Cyrus instructed calmly. "This will be going up on Youtube, soon. "

The plan was to chase away some bees for honey. No joke. TJ and Marty had seen Winnie the Pooh attempt this unsuccessfully during their movie marathon on their boys' night (which took place every Friday night and Saturday morning, much to Andi and Buffy's distaste due to the fact they couldn't see Cyrus during these times. Or Marty, Buffy had added) and miraculously believed it to be a good idea (for the purpose of selling honey to make money), and an even better idea to film it. Jonah agreed willingly, even deeming it 'a bit of fun.' Walker wasn't sold at first, nor was Cyrus, but they were both overruled. 

So here they were, on a sunny Wednesday in the first week of the summer holidays, putting a video of them trying to catch honey from a Beehive. What could possibly go wrong? Cyrus had had that exact thought. Then he wrote his answer down. It was nearly 10 pages long. Needless to say, the other boys were all ironically very concerned about Cyrus' habit of worrying excessively.

Walker decided to run through the plan one more time and guide them before he would get it on camera-they wanted two videos, a professional one on Walker's camera and an amateur one on Marty's phone, both to be uploaded to YouTube, apparently.

"So, let's see. TJ, you grab that stick there from Marty- TJ, what are you doing? You're going to fall out if you reach any further!" 

Cyrus let out a panicked squeak. As a Jew, he had been brought up to pray whenever something went wrong. Suffice to say, he had prayed a lot around these four fools. 

"Please, God, let TJ be OK and not make a fool of himself...."

He glanced up at the tree worriedly.

"And Marty, too for that matter." He rapidly added.

Too late.

"Marty! That's not funny! You're not a monkey! Get yourself the right way up! You think swinging upside down on a high branch is funny?" Walker yelled. 

"I do," Jonah snickered. Cyrus nudged him.

"C'mon, man!" TJ yelled. "Give him a break!" 

Walker shook his head, stubbornly insisting that there should be no messing on the job...despite messing about essentially being the job. 

"Next, TJ, lean upwards towards the branch, that's it...Cyrus, are you recording this?"

Cyrus nodded at Walker in affirmation, who rewarded him with a quick thumbs-up.

"Now, Marty, just wrap your arms around his waist to support him a little. A bit firmer, please."

Jonah raised his eyebrows mockingly. 

"But that's, like....gay, Walker." Marty decided to point out.

"We're all a bit gay, really. " TJ responded, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Dude, I'm not!" Marty retorted. 

"Are you sure about that? TJ teased him . 

"Of course, numbskull! I'm dating Driscoll, remember? Or did the time when you ran into that wall thinking you could get to platform 9 and 3 quarters about three weeks ago cause you complete amnesia?"

TJ shook his head. "No. I just have this idea everyone is a least a bit gay." 

"I don't think anybody could be as whipped as you are for-" 

Marty was suddenly cut off by Cyrus, who reminded them to stay focused. TJ winked at Cyrus, causing him to turn pink. 

TJ smirked in satisfaction and reached up with Marty supporting him, like he was instructed to, fully aware now of the time they had wasted so far. 

Walker nodded approvingly. "OK...so Jonah, take your position...Jonah?" 

It turned out during TJ and Marty's little conversation, Jonah had phased out and was now absent mindedly humming Smash Mouth's All Star under his breath.

Walker snapped his fingers. "Jonah!"

Jonah gained his focus again. 

"Yeah?"

"Stand in your position, under the Beehive."

Jonah nodded and snapped into action. 

"On it. "

"Good. " Walker smiled softly at his adorable boyfriend, before refocusing his attention again. It seemed they had all got distracted today. 

"Good thing you have your suit on." Walker added. 

It was truly surprising where you could find cheap bee suits for sale. 

"OK, So, TJ, poke it. That's it. Treat it like a piñata. Wait!" Walker had just realised TJ's strength and how athletic the boy was. He cautioned him not to be too aggressive or violent. 

"You got the jar?" Cyrus asked Jonah. 

"Yep," Jonah replied, with a thumbs up and a small smile. "Operation Beehive is a-go."

Cyrus rolled his eyes and Marty groaned. TJ was too busy bashing the Beehive to notice. 

"For the last time, Jonah, we're not calling this Operation Beehive. Get over yourself!" Walker shouted. 

"If it's not called Operation Beehive, then what is it called?"

That was a fair point. The boys hadn't actually figured out a reasonable name, so Jonah repeatedly insisted on calling it 'Operation Beehive.' The other boys hated to admit it, but the name actually stuck. 

"It's-" Walker's answer was cut off quickly by Marty's incessant, random yelling. 

"JOHN CENA! DUN DUN DUN DUN, DUN DUN DUN DUN!" Marty screeched.

Jonah laughed so hard you could see a glint of tears in his eyes. TJ slipped slightly, startled by Marty's strange outburst. That's when he found himself face to face with a swarm of bees. He screamed. 

"Uh-oh." Marty commented. "Those bees look damn mad."

"No, I hadn't noticed." TJ remarked sarcastically, fear widening his eyes like saucers.

"Get down from there!" Walker shouted. "Jonah, move!" 

But Jonah couldn't. He was paralysed with fear. 

Meanwhile, Cyrus' heart was thudding loudly in his chest. Suppose TJ- 

"I GOT STUNG! " TJ yelled like a madman, waving his arms about crazily. "HELP!"

Oh, God. They were done for now. And the worst bit? They had it all on camera. 

"Climb down the tree!" Cyrus instructed them. 

But TJ was too overwhelmed by the fact he'd been stung. Multiple times, at this point. And Marty had allegedly forgotten how to climb down.

Walker looked at Cyrus. "Cyrus, you catch TJ, I'll catch this idiot." He nodded towards Marty, earning him an offended "Hey!" from Marty in the process.

"On it."

"Cyrus, I'm scared!" TJ shouted. 

"You'll be fine." Cyrus reassured him. "Just jump. I've got you, TJ, don't worry."

TJ looked down at the ground below him reluctantly. Obviously, he trusted Cyrus. But that jump...

Meanwhile, Marty was having a field day with this; he leapt wildly down from one of the branches, beating his chest like Donkey Kong and screaming "YEET!" on his way down, before falling into Walker's arms. 

He got back on his feet rapidly and fist bumped Walker. 

"Cheers, dude. "

Walker stood there stubbornly, hands on hips. Now, he rarely got angry, but if Jonah was hurt...

"What've you done?" 

Marty had the decency to look guilty. He shrugged. 

"I dunno, man. I'm really sorry."

Walker, tutted, rolled his eyes and averted his gaze to where TJ and Cyrus were, Cyrus' outstretched arms were awaiting TJ.

"TJ, you'll be safe, I promise." Cyrus assured TJ. 

"Fine."

TJ took a deep breath, bent his knees...and jumped. 

He landed neatly in Cyrus' arms, despite Cyrus' knees buckling in the process. 

"My saviour." He whispered, kissing Cyrus on the cheek. Cyrus blushed. Walker cleared his throat and Cyrus set TJ down. 

"Wait a minute... guys, where's Jonah?" 

As it turned out, Jonah was running around the forest, screaming, surrounded by a swarm of bees. 

Walker sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in despair. 

"Jonah, sweetie, just walk away. Back away. Slowly. That's it. Good. Let's go."

They backed away carefully, hand in hand. Walker inspected Jonah for stings and they made their way back to the group. Cyrus was turning the cameras off and shaking his head. 

"That couldn't have gone more wrong if we tried. " Cyrus groaned. TJ nodded in agreement. 

"Ditto."

Jonah turned to Walker. 

"I thought you were supposed to be an expert, Walker. Your brother's a beekeeper."

"And? I don't work with him." 

Jonah shook his head and they headed home, to sort out TJ's wounds and no doubt be reprimanded by well-meaning adults. Walker was the first to break the comfortable silence which had blanketed them. 

"Did you know bees can do basic math?" 

"That's more than I can do. " TJ complained. 

Marty laughed. 

"Bees: Two. TJ Kippen: Nil."

TJ shoved him playfully. 

"Shut up."

They remained in silence for a moment, when suddenly Cyrus remembered something.

"Are we still uploading these two videos to Youtube?" 

Walker said no at the exact time TJ, Jonah and Marty said yes. 

Cyrus laughed lightly. 

"I guess that's the decision made, then."

Two hours later, and they were gathered in a booth in the Spoon. The video had been uploaded to Youtube. TJ's stings were being dealt with. TJ groaned.

"Never again. " 

At last, that was something they could agree upon.

Meanwhile, Andi, Buffy and Amber were at Buffy's house, scrolling through YouTube, when they got a notification on the boys' channel. They exchanged a look. Andi read the title out loud.

"Trying To Catch Honey From Bees In The Forest (Gone Very Wrong!)." 

Buffy laughed. 

"What have those morons done now?" 

She shook her head, knowing full well how much of an embarrassment Marty would have made of himself. 

They clicked on the video. Five minutes later, it had finished and they were in tears of laughter. 

"I only have one question," Andi declared, still laughing. "Why?" 

Amber grabbed Andi's hand and shrugged, before pointing out, wisely:

"Boys will be boys."


	2. Battle of the Wits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TJ, Marty, Cyrus, Jonah and Walker are having a movie marathon at Cyrus' house when they realise something-they haven't come up with a proper name for their up and coming YouTube channel yet. Who will win the battle for the best channel name? 
> 
> "No, Marty, for the last time, we're not calling it the Shrek Stan Squad!"
> 
> "Why not?" 
> 
> "Because it's an awful name!" 
> 
> "It's still infinitely better than The Bee Bashers, just saying."
> 
> "Hey, I bashed the living daylights out of that beehive!" 
> 
> "Yeah, and look how well that turned out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I am so sorry for not updating for so long! I've been busy with other fics and also exams, so they have been occupying my time. This isn't the best, but I hope you like it anyway! Don't forget to leave kudos and comment if you enjoy it! (:

"You like jazz?" 

Marty and TJ jumped up and down in excitement, screeching. 

"He said the line! He said the line!" TJ exclaimed excitedly. 

Jonah's shoulders were shaking with laughter. Walker filmed them on his phone and Cyrus put his head in his hands. He knew it was a mistake to cave in to their insistence and put this movie on. First it was Shrek, now this? 

He was insane.

Marty and TJ ran around the room and Marty even jumped up and down Cyrus old couch he'd had added into his mini movie/ game room. Marty jumped off and TJ grabbed Cyrus and twirled him around, with Marty whooping and cheering in the background.

Correction: they were insane.

Cyrus laughed. "Sit down, guys. You knocked over the popcorn. I have to clean it up now." 

"Sorry." TJ and Marty replied sheepishly at the same time before sitting back down. TJ removed a bar of chocolate from his bag and offered some to Cyrus, and Walker and Jonah cleaned up the popcorn with Cyrus. Marty was in the process of watching the video Walker had captured and wondered if there were any hidden treasures in his bag. Delving in, he felt something. 

"Guys! There's something in my bag! It's-" 

He froze when he realised what it was.

"A gone off yoghurt pot?" Jonah observed, glancing over Marty's shoulder curiously.

"Yo, do you dare me to down this in thirty sec-" 

"NO!" came the unanimous answer from all four boys at the same time. 

"You'll get sick." Walker pointed out. Cyrus sighed. 

"Just put in the bin." 

Marty nodded and hastily obliged. 

"How'd it get in there anyway?" TJ wondered out loud. Marty shrugged. 

"I dunno, man." 

That being said, they all settled back down to watch the movie; Jonah holding Walker's hand and stroking the inside of Walker's palm lightly with his thumb, and Cyrus' head on TJ's shoulder. TJ stroked Cyrus' hair affectionately, a recent habit of his. The others fake retched, but they all discreetly found it endearing regardless. Marty lay on the floor; to TJ's right, with Cyrus on TJ's left, Jonah on Cyrus' left and Walker on Jonah's left. They passed the chocolate round and chatted amicably among themselves. Jonah knew the movie word for word, of course.

"Jonah, I'm trying to watch the movie. Shut up." TJ muttered. Jonah threw his popcorn at TJ in retaliation. TJ tried to catch it in his mouth. 

"Why does everything have to be to do with your superhuman coordination?" Cyrus whined, burying his head on TJ's chest.

TJ smirked and shrugged. This led to a new idea-they should have a popcorn throwing competition, seeing who could get the most popcorn in their mouth. Cyrus worriedly pointed out they could choke. 

"I'm out." 

"Cool, you'll be our camera man and I'll keep tally whilst I'm throwing the popcorn." Walker decided.

"But you're better with the camera." 

"You wanna throw the popcorn?" Walker asked, genuinely. 

"Nah." 

"That's settled, then." Marty announced, shoving his phone into Cyrus' hand hastily. "I trust you, anyway." 

"And not us?" TJ asked, mock offended. Marty made a rude gesture in TJ's direction, who pretended to be upset for all of two seconds. 

A second later, Marty's phone pinged. 

"Who's that from?" Marty asked absentmindedly, trying to figure out the ideal distance between him and the popcorn bowl. 

"Buffy." Cyrus replied, with raised eyebrows. "Aw, you put heart emojis next to her name! How sweet! And you guys send each other kisses? That's the cutest thing I've ever-" 

He was interrupted by a flushed Marty grabbing his phone to check it. 

"Not cool, man." 

He replied to the text quickly, his smile wide the whole time, and passed the phone back to Cyrus on the grounds that Cyrus strictly kept to the camera on YouTube. Cyrus reluctantly agreed, though not before accusing Marty of 'ruining his fun'.

Walker grabbed a notepad and pen and wrote the initials of Marty, TJ and Jonah, before grabbing the popcorn bowl, which was now half full due to Marty knocking it over earlier, and signalled for Cyrus to start recording. 

"Hey guys, so today we're going to do a popcorn throwing challenge." Marty announced. 

"We'd like to thank everybody for nearly 1 million views on Trying To Catch Honey From Bees In The Forest (Gone Very Wrong!) since we uploaded it just two weeks ago. We really appreciate it!" Walker added.

TJ explained the premise of the challenge and Jonah told the audience to comment, like and subscribe to the channel if they enjoyed the video, and they got into the video.

It was a disaster, of course, and popcorn littered the carpet. As it turned out, TJ was not the supreme popcorn catcher; nor was Marty, as they thought, but Jonah. This amused Walker to no extent. 

"Well done, babe!" Walker congratulated Jonah, hugging him hard. 

"No fair!" Marty wailed childishly.

"That was deliberately rigged!" TJ protested with a pout. "If Cyrus had been throwing them, I'd have definitely won." 

"I did not rig it!" Walker insisted. "You two are just sore losers and can't accept not winning something." 

The latter statement, at least, was true. They were both notoriously competitive.

"No I'm not!" TJ and Marty both yelled at the same time.

"Just remember Monopolygate." Walker reminded them, exchanging a shared looks with Jonah and Cyrus. Cyrus shuddered slightly at the memory and Walker thought back to Monopoly gate, shaking his head. That was not fun.

....................................................................

Walker had been playing monopoly with Marty, Buffy and TJ once as Cyrus commentated and Jonah spectated, Amber and Andi playing four in a row. Never again would he play with Marty, TJ or Buffy, for that matter. Much to Marty's disgust, a smug and satisifed Buffy had won, wanting her a resigned 'well played, Buffy' from Walker himself, Jonah patting Walker's back and congratulating Buffy himself.

"That was unfair! She cheated the whole time!" Marty bluffed, but Buffy wasn't the one who had been caught red handed trying to steal some money from the box. 

"No. You just played badly." Buffy had pointed out. Walker had to admit, she wasn't wrong.

"And you cheated." Andi had reminded him from across the room, her tongue sticking out in concentration as she tried to figure out where to play next.

Marty slumped where he was sat, red faced.

"Whatever." He muttered, accepting defeat. "Congratulations, Buffy. I hope you're happy." 

"I am." Buffy informed him with a grin. "Very happy, in fact." 

"You won!" Cyrus exclaimed at the time. "I knew you'd win! You won!" 

He hugged her and this was the tip of the iceberg for TJ.

"This is not fair! I'm bad at maths so you could have allowed leeway for that! Besides, I clearly won!" 

"No, you didn't, TJ." Amber had told him.

"Screw this!" TJ had yelled, flipping the board over. I'm out."

Cyrus had rushed over to talk to him, to calm him down. It took him an hour long trip to the swings to do so.  
...........................................................................................

Neither of the boys could argue that they weren't angry during Monopolygate, because they definitely were, especially TJ, so they both relented and TJ went over and kissed Cyrus' cheek affectionately as Cyrus began editing the video. 

Everyone else continued watching the Bee Movie as Cyrus edited the video, Walker occasionally coming over to assist him. Cyrus uploaded the video, when a sudden realisation hit him like a truck. 

They didn't have an official channel name. 

They had over 100K subs and no channel name, only Marty's YouTube profile.

He uploaded the video in silence and wondered how they'd come up with a plausible name.

Once it was uploaded, he addressed the group of boys in front of him.

"Guys, we need an official channel name. Any suggestions?"

They all sat and contemplated this in silence. 

"How about the Supreme Squad?" 

Jonah's suggestion was rapidly shot down.

"We're not calling it that." Cyrus informed him. "It's cliché and cringy." 

The others nodded in agreement and Jonah slumped down moodily. 

"The Shrek Stan Squad?" Marty offered, much to the laughter of the others. 

"Definitely not." TJ laughed.

They all looked down, deep in thought.

"The Bee Bashers?" TJ suggested hopefully. 

Walker laughed. 

"Hell no." 

Cyrus frowned. "Don't talk to him like that."

"You called my boyfriend's idea cringy when it wasn't that bad." 

"Yeah, well-" 

Marty sighed, feeling slightly excluded.

"Don't argue, guys."

The others fell silent temporarily.

"I still stand by the idea of the Shrek Stan Squad." 

"NO!"

"But-" 

"Look, Marty, not everyone is as obsessed as you are with Shrek." Jonah pointed out wisely. That was true.

Marty's terrifying fascination with all things to do with Shrek was honestly unnerving. The sheer amount of Shrek memorabilia Marty had obtained was unbelievable; from soft toys to a horrifying cardboard cut out of him, which had undeniably freaked everyone who had seen it out to no end. Sometimes, Marty woke up in the middle of the night, seeing an ominous figure and screaming, before realising it was just his cardboard cut out of Shrek. 

Marty sighed, still stubborn.

"What about the Hamilstans?" Cyrus contributed. 

TJ placed a hand on Cyrus' shoulder. 

"Underdog, we all know how much you love Hamilton." 

Cyrus had the Hamilton CDs as well as the mixtape and a massive poster up in his room. He dreamed of seeing Hamilton on Broadway with TJ one day in New York. It would be amazing-they would go around all the museums, see the statue of Liberty, eat hotdogs, go to fancy restaurants, see Hamilton on Broadway and stay in a five star hotel together-it would be perfect.

He was awoken form his daydream by TJ talking again.

"I love, it too." TJ continued. He had a Hamilton calendar alongside the CDs. "You know that. But not all of us here do." 

Cyrus nodded. 

"Okay." 

He turned to Walker.

"Do you have any ideas, Walker? You're a pretty creative guy." 

"I'm just thinking." 

Marty coughed in a way that sounded suspiciously like the phrase 'Shrek Stan Squad' and Cyrus pretended he hadn't heard him. 

"How about the Foolish Five? Maybe Foolish Four if we take out our camera man?" 

"Sounds dumb." TJ interjected. Walker glared at him and Jonah placed an arm around Walker's shoulders defensively. 

"Hey, it's not that bad....not that I like it." 

It seemed as though they couldn't come to a general consensus.

Cyrus placed his head in his hands despairingly. What were they going to do? They needed a name if they wanted to be successful. 

"Guys, let's just call it The Shrek Stan Squad."

"No, Marty, for the last time, we're not calling it the Shrek Stan Squad!"

"Why not?" 

"Because it's an awful name!" 

"It's still infinitely better than The Bee Bashers, just saying."

TJ crossed his arms, scowling.

"Hey, I bashed the living daylights out of that beehive!" 

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out."

"Hey! That was your fault for being so loud and anyway, thanks to me doing that, we got nearly a million views on our channel!" 

"Which I hasten to add, still doesn't have a name." Cyrus interjected. He was ignored in the heat of the argument, however.

"It was thanks to me, actually! And that doesn't make your stupid little name any less awful." 

TJ glowered at Marty petulantly and Cyrus placed a hand on TJ's arm, which still sent a spark of electricity through it. 

"TJ-" 

"Get off me, Cyrus!" TJ snapped. "I can handle myself without you interfering." 

Cyrus reeled back in shock. TJ virtually never spoke to him like that. He was getting too riled up.

"If you didn't want to talk to me, you should have just said." Cyrus muttered, his voice dangerously low. "I get it. I jump in too fast. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you do, actually. It's pretty irritating. You should probably stop it." 

Jonah spoke, jumping to Cyrus' defense rapidly.

"TJ, he's clearly trying to be a good boyfriend. He's done nothing wrong, so don't have a go at him. Instead of all arguing, why don't we just have a vote on which name to pick?" 

Marty shrugged. "Okay." 

TJ glared back at Marty , irritation and mild anger flashing in his eyes. 

"Fine." 

"Sounds good to me." Cyrus muttered flatly, looking up at TJ, whose glance was now poised on the floor. TJ reached out to touch Cyrus' wrist, but Cyrus moved away from him slightly and TJ glanced at Cyrus apologetically. Cyrus looked straight forward and ignored him, knowing he was being petty but not caring.

"All in favour of Supreme Squad?" 

Jonah raised his hand.

"All in favour of Bee Bashers?" 

TJ raised his hand.

"All in favour of Shrek Stan Squad?"

Marty raised his hand. 

"All in favour of Hamilstans?" 

Cyrus raised his hand.

"All in favour of Foolish Four?" 

Walker raised his hand. 

"We're never going to come up with a name at this rate." Cyrus observed cynically. 

Walker's face lit up suddenly. "I have an idea. Why don't we all live stream our competition for our name to be picked on Monday, and whoever does the craziest stunt, and whoever does the best one wins?"

"Hell yes!" Marty responded enthusiastically. 

"Epic!" Jonah replied. 

"Sounds fun to me." TJ smiled. 

"What about you, Cyrus? Are you in?" Walker asked.

"Nah. Sounds too dangerous for me." 

"Chicken." TJ muttered. Cyrus gave him a look sharp enough to break stone. 

"Don't you think you've said enough to upset me today?" 

TJ swallowed and turned pink in shame.

"Please? It'll be fun." Jonah cajoled, nudging Cyrus playfully.

"Okay. Fine. I'll do it. It does sound quite fun anyway." Cyrus finally relented. 

Jonah grabbed Walker's hand and grinned.

"Let the Battle of the Wits begin."

"Hey, good morning Shrek Stan Squad!" Marty yelled into his camera brightly. "Today, I'm going to be putting a bucket of red paint on the top of the door at my nearest supermarket. When it gets spilled, I'm going to jump from behind the door, throw a rotten tomato I found in the street and yell 'I'm a g-nome, and you've just been g-nomed!' Hopefully I don't get into trouble! Let's see how it goes down! And remember, these is all for the channel to be called Shrek Stan Squad, which, might I add, is much better than TJ's abysmally name, Bee Bashers. Spread the message and like the video to advocate my awesome idea! Okay, let's do this thing!"

Marty got out a red fog horn from his pocket, and from the depths of his duffel bag, managed to bring out a clown wig and a red nose with an inner sense of excitement. To help him, gather courage, he downed his energy drink (his third or fourth that day already),and grabbed a canister of whipped cream, and proceeded to squirt about a third of it into his mouth, wiping it from his mouth quickly afterwards.

"Refreshing! Shrek would be proud!" 

Needless to say, he was very hyper.

He imagined what his friends would say if they saw him. Nothing good, no doubt. He didn't dare check the live comments, even in the crazy state he was in. 

Laughing to himself, he positioned himself and everything correctly, recording it in the meantime. 

He was ready.

This was going to be a disaster.

Bring it on. 

Meanwhile, TJ had acted quite stupidly. It had just so happened that he had decided to buy a can of spray paint and graffiti a wall, somewhat hidden by overgrowth but only underneath, close to the park. He just wanted to get Cyrus' attention. Cyrus hadn't spoken to him for a few days and it was hurting him. Before their argument, they'd spent three or four occasions a week together, going to the park, watching a movie at the cinema, just hanging out, glowing in each other's presence. He had to go and ruin it, though, didn't he? Classic TJ. Anything good, he had to ruin it. He'd snapped at Cyrus and irritated, possibly upset him. He hoped it was the former because the latter was too painful for him to comprehend; TJ absolutely hated upsetting Cyrus and now his petty and short tempered, competitive nature had gotten to him.

All he was trying to do was get Cyrus' attention. He knew, secretly, deep down inside, that his name was abysmal. Of course it was. But he argues with Marty simply for arguments' sake. Typical TJ. And now he was stood, red spray can in one hand, phone in other, ready to do this. Perhaps recording a crime, in hindsight, as a stupid thing to do, but when it came to idiotic decisions, well let's just say they never stopped TJ seeing as he lacked basic common sense at times. Times like now. 

He was screwed, and the worst thing was that he didn't even care.

Looking around warily, TJ took a deep breath, put his hood down and began. 

"Cyrus, if you see this, I really care about you and I'm sorry for being tactless to you. This name competition is dumb anyway. But I'll still do this. Because of you. " 

Hands shaking, he grabbed the can in his hand and started to spray the red paint on the wall. Red, he mused, like danger. He was in danger of being punished by the authorities; fined, possibly given a criminal record, forced to scrub it off. And for what? A stupid competition? A chance at getting Cyrus back?

Eyes watering, TJ realised what he was doing and how wrong it was. How could he do that?

"I can't do this." He spoke out loud to the camera. "For my idea to be a name for the channel? They have to be the dumbest motives ever. I mean, seriously? Bee Bashers? It's pathetic. Jonah might have seen the bee movie several hundred times-and I might have bashed those bees with an inward aggression I never knew I possessed-but it's dumb, let's face it." 

He paused as he looked in the camera. 

"I hope what the others are doing is good. I can't do this. It's wrong. I don't have any other ideas. I quit. I need to find Cyrus, and put things to rights." 

As he exited the park, he looked at the other boy's live streams. Only Marty and Cyrus were currently live streaming. Marty was climbing up a door and was about to drop a bucket of paint on someone. TJ sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Why wasn't he surprised? What an idiot. He'd be lucky if he stayed out of trouble. 

Slightly hypocritical there, he reminded himself sternly. He'd been about to graffiti spray a wall. Not a clever idea, exactly. He wondered fleetingly if he should try something else, but decided against it and clicked on Cyrus' live stream in a desperate attempt to find him.

"Hey, so, uh, funny thing. I got up the tree with this 'Hamilstans 4 life banner' "Cyrus explained shakily to the camera, "But it turns out that I can't actually get down." A wave of concern flooded TJ as he realised the danger his wonderful boyfriend was in. 

He was receiving multiple messages asking where exactly he was on the Live Comments section, and explained that he was at the park, where the tallest tree was. TJ smiled lightly at the reminder that they were connected by the very same park they were both currently in. Great minds, after all. 

I'm coming, Underdog, he texted Cyrus. 

Hurry up, please. Cyrus replied. I'm scared and I need help. 

Don't worry, TJ assured him. I got you.

If he ran, he could make it to Cyrus in a few minutes. He prayed to God he'd manage to, before something happened to Cyrus.

Meanwhile, it seemed as though Jonah was...singing? And he was playing the guitar? In the middle of the street. He was busking, technically. Waller hated to admit it, but he was spying on the opposition, subtly weaving his way through the heavy crowd that began to gather on the humid August day. He wished be could cheer his boyfriend on. However, a few things prevented him from doing so. One of those being that it would alert Jonah to the fact that he was watching him, which would be awkward to explain, at best. The other was that, despite Jonah's brilliant singing voice, his song was, simply put, awful. Walker stood in the crowd with his hood up and subtly listened to Jonah as he sang. 

"So once there was a competition for a channel name,  
Some people might call it stupid or a game,  
But to me it's important to know  
That even though  
This is petty and small  
I wanna be the winner overall  
Supreme Squad, we'll rise up  
Gotta hurry up or we're going to find out our time's up. 

Now the other competitors got nothing on me,  
Really dumb names, as you'll soon see.  
Shrek Stan Squad, Hamilstans  
As if those names would be part of our plans  
Bee Bashers, Foolish Four."

Hey, his channel name idea wasn't that bad, Walker thought to himself indignantly as Jonah warbled on, plunging into the painful chorus.

"I can't take it any more." Jonah sang, before the chorus hit. 

"I just want to win, is that so bad?  
It's a plausible reason to drive a guy mad.  
Supreme Squad is a superior idea  
As everyone will agree here.  
I love what I'm thinking of it, I can't help it.  
Cos the Supreme Squad is super lit!" 

Jonah repeated the chorus as Walker shook his head in despair and clenched his fists angrily at the poorly concealed laughter rising from the audience. 

"I only wanna know,  
Why other people hate my idea so.  
That's right, I only wanna know,  
Why other people hate my idea so." Jonah sang, before getting into the second verse. 

"Now, I know, people disagree with me  
But they're just filled with jealousy  
Because my name is so awesome, maybe too  
Much, and my competitors, what can they do? " 

Jonah looked straight forward, and that's when he noticed Walker, his emerald eyes widening in rrecognition. 

"Listen to me sing,  
But here's the thing  
They have nothing on me,  
As you'll soon see." 

Jonah belted out, death glaring Walker the whole time. Walker took the hint, turned on his heel, and left.

Oh, well. It was getting torturous, anyway, if Walker was being fully honest here.

Now, it was his turn. To the beach. 

Walker's plan was to get a bunch of shells he'd spent yesterday collecting, to spell out Foolish Four. Tame, yes, but so were the other so-called 'stunts.' Instead of posting it live (that would drag on relentlessly, he felt) he would do a video with a time skip and take a picture to put on Instagram under the hashtag of Foolish Four. 

It was going to be really fun. 

Walker couldn't wait. 

Bring it on.

..................................................................................

"Cyrus? Why are you up a tree?" 

"Why do you think, TJ?" 

Despite his swift sarcastic reply, Cyrus was actually almost nauseous with fear. Here he was, nearly eighty feet above the ground, with just a video of him waving about a silly banner (which he later attached to the tree) to show for it. 

People didn't think he could be brave. Well, he was capable. He was strong. He could prove people wrong. 

Only, he wasn't. He couldn't get down, now. He'd been so stupid. Suppose he fell out of the tree and seriously injured himself? What would happen then? He'd end up in hospital, possibly paralysed and missing out on weeks' worth of education missed out on in recovery time, and expensive hospital treatment which he might not be able to afford and-

His spiral of anxiety was interrupted by a message from TJ, telling him to not worry and he'd be okay. Despite the fact that he was still upset at TJ from snapping at him, Cyrus knew he could always trust TJ to be there for him. 

They hadn't spoken since Friday night. Cyrus had been pondering over what TJ had said-was he really irritating? Was TJ fed up of him? He really hoped he wouldn't be. 

TJ had appeared sooner than Cyrus expected. 

TJ stood there, concerned. 

"I meant, why did you do it?" 

"To prove I wasn't a chicken." Cyrus responded shakily, close to tears.

He shouldn't have let TJ's words get to him. It was too late by now, though.

"Oh, Cyrus..." TJ responded, his voice gentle. He himself sounded close to tears. "Why did you let my words get to you?" 

"Because I really care about you, TJ. I guess..." Cyrus swallowed thickly. "You could say I love you, TJ Kippen." 

His eyes were watering up now and so were TJ's. 

"I love you, too, Cyrus. Always. I'm so sorry for how I treated you. It was awful and you didn't deserve it." 

"It's fine. I forgive you." Cyrus reassured TJ with a small smile. 

TJ smiled back up at Cyrus, giving him heart eyes and making him turn red in the process. Cyrus cleared his those after five seconds of silence and spoke.

"This is sweet and everything, but please can you help me get down?" 

TJ nodded. 

" Of course. Just jump. I've got you, Underdog. I promise."

"I don't know, it's pretty far to fall. What if something bad happens to me?" 

"I won't let that happen, Cyrus, I promise." 

Edging his way across the branch precariously, Cyrus attempted to keeps firm grip on his phone. Not a good idea. Without both hands to manoeuvre himself with, Cyrus almost slipped and let out a scream at the same time as TJ let out a loud gasp.

"Cyrus, throw your phone down to me. I'll sort it." 

Cyrus did so and TJ caught it. Cyrus was suddenly grateful to have such an athletic boyfriend. 

"TJ?" 

"Yeah?" 

"What if something does happen to me?" 

"It won't." 

"But what if I fall?" 

"Then I'll never forgive myself." 

Walker, in the meantime, was thoroughly enjoying himself. Admittedly, he felt a little bit guilty about the little incident with Jonah earlier, but it was only minor so he was certain it would cool over. 

He'd started the video and he was very relaxed. The sun was shining on him brightly, filling him with warmth and happiness. In the past twenty minutes, Walker had already spelt out the word 'fool'. 

He was very proud of himself. 

"COME BACK HERE RIGHT NOW, FOOLISH YOUNG MAN, BEFORE I SUE YOU AND SLAP YOU LIKE CRAZY FOR GOOD MEASURE!"

Suffice to say, there was an actual fool ,who was not so proud of himself currently. Marty had a fifty year old crazy mother running after him, which wasn't as fun as it sounded. At least he had it all on camera.

"I ONLY CAME IN FOR MY WHOLEFOOD, BUT IDIOTIC LITTLE BOYS LIKE YOU-!" 

The red paint dripping off her newly done blonde perm was a hilarious sight to behold, however.

Marty attempted to cover up his smirk with his hand, which was still stinging after the slap on the wrist he'd just received. The teenage employee on the store really didn't care that much, since Marty had cleaned up, despite the women (whose name was apparently Susan) angrily demanding to see the manager. Apparently the pink haired seventeen year old hadn't cared about much since her boyfriend, Mitch, had broken up with her. Marty didn't stick around to hear the rest of the tale, although now he was strongly wishing he had. 

"STOP LAUGHING!" The lady screamed, continuing her sorry old tirade and beginning to gradually attract a curious crowd. "IT'S YOUNG TEENAGE BOYS LIKE YOU WHO ARE THE SHAME OF THIS SOCIETY AND BRING IT DOWN, I'M TELLING YOU! CAN'T GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT THEM DOING ANYTHING, HONESTLY! THE OTHER DAY, MY YOUNG DAUGHTER, FELICIA, WAS COMING OUT OF HER PRIVATE VIOLIN LESSONS, WHEN A GANG OF TEENAGE BOYS APPEARED OUTSIDE THE LOCAL PARK SHE WAS WALKING PAST!" 

Marty sniggered indelicately. Felicia? Seriously? Who called their kids that, for goodness' sake?

"YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY!?" Susan screeched incredulously. "YOU REALLY, GENUINELY THINK THAT THIS IS FUNNY?" 

"Yes, actually." Marty muttered. 

Unfortunately, Susan heard him. 

"THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER! IF YOU HAD ANY SENSE OF DECENCY AND SELF RESPECT, I SWEAR-!"

Marty shrugged casually. 

"Good job I don't, then, eh?" 

"HONESTLY! IT'S THE PARENTS! THEY RAISE THEIR KIDS TO BE ABSOLUTE CLOWNS!" 

"Hey!" Marty interjected defensively. "My parents did absolutely nothing wrong in raising me." 

"Were you vaccinated?" 

"Excuse me?" 

"You heard me, you insolent young man. Were you vaccinated?" 

Marty pulled a face, much to Susan's disgust. 

"Of course I was..." 

"Aha! That's it!" 

"What?" 

"Don't you 'what' me, Mister! That's the reason why you are behaving so rebelliously. Your vaccination caused you to act in a foolish way. It's the chemicals in them. I don't trust them." 

"You're an anti-vaxx mom?" 

Susan nodded proudly, her head held high for some absurd reason. 

"And proud of it. You shouldn't vaccinate your children, you know, it causes all sorts of horrific mental issues and diseases." 

Marty shook his head in despair. You couldn't make this stuff up. You really couldn't.

"That's so dumb." 

"HOW DARE YOU BE SO DISRESPECTFUL! FIRST THE CLOWN HORN, THE WIG, THE YELLING, THE WHIPPED CREAM AND THE RED PAINT, AND NOW YOU'RE BEING INCREDIBLY RUDE TOWARDS ME! IT'S HONESTLY UNBELIEVABLE!" 

"Hey, I already apologised for that, ma'am. I'll pay for new clothes, and add an extra twenty quid for verbal disrespect, how does that sound?"

"And my perm." Susan added adamantly. Marty sighed, doing the maths in his head.

"Fine. And the perm." 

"Good. I've been very generous, you know. I could have sued or pressed charges. Do you understand that?" 

Marty nodded. 

"Yeah. Oh, and one last thing before I give you the money tomorrow?" 

"What?" 

"Shrek Stan Squad for life!" Marty shouted, throwing up the peace sign as he dashed down the street like a madman, laughing crazily into his phone camera. 

"Shrek would be proud." 

Marty really hoped he would be. 

Walker whistled as he worked. This was super calming, no sounds except him and the gentle breeze making its way across the beach. Even the seagulls were oddly quiet for once. It was a quiet stretch of beach he was on, but Walker was still surprised at the serenity all the same. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The shells now spelt out the word 'foolish'. He was making good progress. 

This was a foolish decision and Cyrus was making no process in coming down, in the mean time. 

He really had to stop caring about what others thought and said in the future.

"Come on down, Cyrus!" 

"I'm trying, I swear!" 

"You've been up there for nearly an hour, now. Don't beat around the bush. You'll just fall into my arms. I promise." TJ's voice emerged from underground. 

"I'm not so sure about this." Cyrus informed TJ nervously, peering down at the soft grass beneath him and willing himself to have the mental strength to overcome his overwhelming feelings of panic. He could trust TJ. He'd known that since the day he'd met him at the swings. So why was he so apprehensive in jumping down? 

Cyrus tried to replace terrifying images with idyllic ones of future plans with friends, dates with TJ, happy memories, to distract himself from the chaos swarming through his head.

Shaking, Cyrus made his way towards the end of the branch. 

"That's it! You can do it!" TJ coaxed him, encouragingly. 

TJ would be there for Cyrus, no matter what. To help him when he was down, to catch him when he fell. 

Bearing the above in mind, Cyrus took a deep breath, closed his eyes, bent his knees-and jumped.

Walker admired his work with a smile. He'd always known he was a creative person, after all, but this was something really special. He loved the variety of shell colours, shapes and sizes that you could find. It was really interesting. Since he'd last appeased his work, he'd got down, there on the golden sand, the word 'four'. That was pretty cool.

"Four hours!" Jonah shouted angrily as he swung open the doors of the almost empty Spoon. "Not cool!" 

TJ, Cyrus and Marty looked up questioningly, all looking slightly scared and surprised by Jonah's sudden and unexpected furious outburst. 

"What are you talking about?" Cyrus asked him, out of curiosity and concern for him.

"I was singing for four hours and people just laughed. It was humiliating!" Jonah explained, taking a seat next to Cyrus. "Unfortunately it is up on YouTube, but I honestly don't know if I want it to be. Those lyrics were great, however. I guess it's just down to music yasye. It is good, though." 

"Why don't we watch it, then?" TJ suggested, pulling the video up on his phone. 

The three boys tried simultaneously to not make odd faces when watching the video. The lyrics truly were terrible, but none of them could bring themselves to say it out of the fear of being tactless and hurting Jonah's feelings in the process. 

"So, what did you guys think?" Jonah asked, slightly calmer now but a little worked up. 

"Uh, it's great, man. Well done." Marty responded with a fake smile, shooting TJ and Cyrus a Look, and they nodded along and amicably agreed with them, which returned Jonah's from, at least temporarily. 

"What have you been up to, Marty?" Jonah asked and Marty delved into his story. 

"In short," he wrapped it up, "In threw a bucket of red paint on an anti-vaxx mom, while yelling memes and spraying whipped cream in her face and got chased down for it afterwards." 

After their laughter had subsided, Cyrus' voice and face took on a more sombre tone. 

"You're lucky she didn't press charges. Or that worker, come to think of it." 

Marty nodded. "I know." 

He looked to TJ. 

"What did you do, man?" 

TJ gulped and took a small sip of his strawberry milkshake before telling them all in an embarrassed tone what he was about to and why he didn't go through with it, thus failing the challenge to save his neck and to make things up with Cyrus. Cyrus smiled and kissed his cheek. 

"I'm glad you did the right thing." Cyrus told TJ, kissing him on the forehead softly. 

"What actually happened?" Jonah asked, his head on his elbows.

"I made a banner, climbed up a tree with it, put it on the tree and unfortunately got stuck." Cyrus explained. "TJ came and I jumped into his arms. Good job he caught me." 

"Is the live still available on YouTube?" Marty asked. 

"Yeah, I uploaded it half an hour ago as a video." 

They sat and watched the videos, and got two 'aws' from Marty and Jonah when they kissed whilst Cyrus was getting down. Both TJ and Cyrus turned red and Jonah looked at the ground. 

"I wish things were going alright with my boyfriend." 

Marty frowned. 

"Why aren't they?" 

Jonah explained how Walker was at the event, and it was irritating but also against the rules. As he finished speaking, they all got a notification from Instagram. More specifically, Walker's Instagram. He'd posted a picture of shells on the sand at the local beach, spelling out 'Foolish Four. 

Jonah hated to admit it, but it looked beautiful. He missed Walker suddenly, and decided to text him. 

Ten minutes and several baby taters later, Walker appeared at the Spoon. The minute he spotted Jonah, he felt guilty.

"Hey." Walker greeted them. "I put my thing up on Instagram. What do you guys think?" 

"It's really beautiful." Jonah replied, looking Walker straight in the eye. Walker softened and grabbed Jonah's hand. 

"Can we talk for a second?" 

Jonah shrugged. 

"Sure."

They stepped outside and Walked grabbed Jonah's hands. 

"Jonah. I'm so sorry for embarrassing you. I was trying to support you, but it clearly backfired..." 

Jonah's face softened. 

"You weren't there to embarrass or laugh at me?" 

"Of course not." Walker informed Jonah, taken aback. "Why would I?" 

"I don't know. I...it's just my anxiety turns people against me, and today was bad enough as it is." 

"Come here." Walker whispered.

Walker hugged Jonah. 

"I'm sorry. I was being petty about the situation." Jonah pointed out. 

"It's not your fault, Jonah." 

"I meant it about your display, by the way. It's gorgeous." 

"Not as gorgeous as you." 

Jonah punched Walker's shoulder. 

"You're so cheesy, Walker." 

"You love me for it, really." 

Jonah smiled. 

"I know." 

Walker smiled as he looked at Jonah. 

"We're good, then?" Walker checked. 

Jonah grinned and nodded. 

"We're good." 

They walked into the Spoon, laughing, with Walker's arm around Jonah. As they sat down, Walker was complimented on his display.

When they all finally settled down, Cyrus posed the penultimate question.

"So, who won? Whose name are we using?: 

After a bit of brief conversation, once again there seemed to be no general consensus. 

"Why don't we just meet up with Buffy and Andi and met them decide?" Cyrus suggested. This idea was met with approval by the group and Marty grinned, happy at the prospect of seeing his girlfriend today, which he hadn't anticipated. 

They arrived within fifteen minutes, Cyrus ordering then their usual milkshakes and meals. They sat then down. 

"Which name should we use?" Marty asked, as they took their seats. 

"Let me start by saying all of you have been dumb, with the exception of Walker." Buffy pointed out. Andi nodded in agreement. 

"You guys have been crazy today." 

They all laughed uneasily in the knowledge that the girls were right. 

"So," TJ asked, the anticipation killing him, "What should we call our channel?" 

Buffy and Andi exchanged a look, remembering something which had been said a few weeks ago. 

"There's a simple name you can call it." Andi announced. 

"What is it?" Cyrus asked. 

Buffy smiled, her hand in Marty's, before speaking and declaring the new name of their YouTube channel 

"Boys Will Be Boys."


End file.
